MANY airlines are expanding their fleets due to the surge in travel. In line with this, Malaysia Airlines Berhad should consider expanding its engineering division to provide maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) services to other airlines and third parties.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia Airlines Aerospace Engineering (MAAE) was a globally renowned service provider with six hangars at its peak – four at the previous Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Selangor, and two at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

This was up to a week before the pandemic began in February 2020.

With a customer base of over 100 airlines then, it had heavy maintenance capability for the Airbus A380, Boeing 747, Boeing 777, Airbus A330, Airbus A320 and Boeing 737NG aircraft, including component repair and overhaul, stripping and painting, and training technical staff.

MAAE was also certified by the Boeing Company as an authorised winglets contractor for B737NG aircraft.

The pandemic grounded travel and drove the civil aviation industry to a halt, leaving many MRO service providers across the globe idle. In the midst of this situation, MAAE scaled down its operations to only two hangars at KLIA.

The global MRO market was valued at Us$48.35bil (Rm222bil) in 2022. It is projected to grow to Us$58.54bil (Rm268bil) by 2029, seeing a compounded annual growth rate of 3.2%.

Growth rate can be attributed to fleet expansion. And growing demand for aircraft drives the MRO services market. All this adds up to the outlook for the MRO market looking bright.

According to international management consulting firm Oliver Wyman’s global fleet and MRO market forecast for 2023 to 2033, the number of aircraft globally will increase by a whopping 33% to 36,000.

MAAE has contributed significantly to Malaysia Airlines Berhad’s bottom line, and it can do so again. A heavy investment upfront may be required to acquire equipment and tooling to rebuild MAAE in terms of capacity and to expand its capability to offer more services.

As it made an impact in the global MRO market prior to the pandemic, MAB should consider making MAAE a significant presence again.